Sheng Xiping took off his apron and went inside to chat with Xiao Zhang.

Meanwhile, Sheng Xinyue and Sheng Xinqi were already playing with Chen Yue.

The two girls from the Sheng family are still young, so naturally they don't remember Chen Feng and Chen Yue, the brother and sister.

On the way home from school, Aunt Li specifically reminded the two children that when guests came to visit, they should be polite, get along well with the guests, and be generous and attentive.

Children from Northeast China are taught by their parents from a young age to be open and honest in whatever they do, and to be adventurous.

If a child is shy and hesitant when meeting strangers, or stammers and can't utter a single word, they'll definitely get a scolding after the guests leave.

The two girls from the Sheng family have been cheerful and outgoing since they were young, and they can talk to anyone.

The two girls were overjoyed to have a new older sister, and soon they were calling out to Chen Yue, "Sister, sister!"

Before five o'clock, all the food was ready, and Zhou Qinglan had also taken leave early to come back. The whole family gathered together for dinner.

Chen Feng and the others had been traveling all the way, and had only had a quick bite to eat at noon. By now, they were all starving.

Especially when they saw this table full of dishes, all of which were their favorites, they didn't care about anything else and started eating.

Sheng Xiping and his driver, Xiao Zhang, only had a few drinks as a formality; neither of them drank much.

After dinner, Zhou Qinglan hurriedly returned to the school to supervise the students' evening classes, while Sheng Xiping and Xiao Zhang chatted over tea.

Sheng Xinhua, Sheng Xinyu, and Chen Feng whispered to each other, while Xin Yue, Xin Qi, and Chen Yue played house on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Driver Xiao Zhang had other business to attend to, so after staying overnight at the Sheng family's house, he drove back to the provincial capital early the next morning.

As for Chen Feng and Chen Yue, they had nothing to do during the holiday. They had told their families before they came that they would go back after the college entrance examination results came out.

Sheng Xiping still had a lot of things to do and didn't have time to stay home with her child, so she went to work after breakfast.

It happened to be Sunday, so Xin Yue and Xin Qi didn't have to go to their after-school program and stayed home to play with Chen Yue.

As for Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu, the two boys went straight into the warehouse as soon as Sheng Xiping left home.

"Brother, look at my gun." Sheng Xinhua took out his modified matchstick gun and showed it off to Chen Feng.

Chen Feng's eyes lit up when he saw it.

Don't let his location in the provincial capital fool you; when it comes to having fun, city kids can't compete with kids from smaller towns in terms of sheer variety.

"Where did you get this? Did you make it? It looks pretty good." Chen Feng took the matchstick gun and examined it closely in his hands.

Every boy is proud to own a gun, even if he doesn't have a real one, a toy gun like this would be fine too.

"Hehe, I bought it from a guy for fifteen yuan," Sheng Xinhua said, scratching his head with an embarrassed look.

"However, I installed that gun barrel myself. I want to test whether it can be loaded with gunpowder."

"If it can be installed, the next step is to try installing gun pellets, then we can go bird hunting," Sheng Xinhua said ambitiously.

“My dad doesn’t let us touch the guns in the house, so my grandpa sent them all to the breeding farm.”

Hehe, then I'll make one myself and see what they can say then.

Chen Feng frowned. "Will this thing work? I'm afraid it's not very sturdy." Chen Feng had never handled this kind of gun before, and he wasn't sure what would happen if it were loaded with gunpowder.

"Give it a try, what's so special about this thing?" Sheng Xinhua shrugged dismissively. "Brother, just you wait and see, I'm confident."

After saying that, Sheng Xinhua started fiddling with things again.

He found an old bicycle tire in the storeroom, cut a wide strip with scissors, hung it on the bolt of his rifle, and pulled it open to test its elasticity.

Then, Sheng Xinhua ran back into the house and rummaged through the cabinet and found a small cardboard box containing the firecrackers left over from the New Year.

The first blast of a double-bang firecracker uses black powder and is very powerful; the second blast is gray and is said to be made of explosives, which is very dangerous.

Therefore, Sheng Xinhua only managed to extract the black powder for the first shot.

Then, he lowered the bolt, filled the cartridge case with the black powder of a cannon, almost half a cartridge case, and then plugged it with a small wad of cotton.

The gun is assembled, but you absolutely cannot test it at home; nobody can guarantee how loud it will be.

Although Sheng Xiping wasn't home, Aunt Li was. If she heard him, she would definitely tell Sheng Xiping.

So, the shrewd Sheng Xinhua simply put the gun in his pocket.

Then, grabbing a box of matches, he dragged Chen Feng and Sheng Xinyu out of the house.

The three went out and found a secluded and open place.

Then Sheng Xinhua couldn't wait to take out the match gun, pull up the bolt, take out the matches, pry off the red match heads, and stuff them into the eye of the chain little by little.

Sheng Xinhua wasn't sure how many match heads would be needed to ignite the gunpowder, so he stuffed five inside.

Then he pushed the bolt in a bit to make it secure before finally attaching it.

Whether from nervousness or excitement, Sheng Xinhua's hands were trembling slightly.

"Xinhua, what's wrong? Are you scared? Why don't I try?"

Upon seeing this, Chen Feng assumed that Sheng Xinhua was scared and reached out to take the gun from Sheng Xinhua's hand.

Chen Feng was several years older than Sheng Xinhua, and he was worried that if something happened to Sheng Xinhua, he wouldn't be able to explain it to his uncle and aunt.

"Brother, no need, I'm not scared, I'm just a little excited." Sheng Xinhua chuckled.

Kids these days are so brave, they're fearless.

Especially at Sheng Xinhua's age, when he is unaware of danger and dares to do anything, why would he be afraid?

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